Juris Podnieks was born in Riga, Latvia in 1950. He graduated from the celebrated Soviet film school, VGIK, in 1975. He went to wrok at the Riga Film Studio, first as assistant cameraman, then as cameraman before finally becoming a director in 1979.

His first production the "Cradle" won a prize at the Leipzig Festival, and shortly afterwards "The Brothers Kokar" took first prize at the Kiev Youth Festival in 1981.
In the same year he received wide recognition inside and outside of the Soviet Union for his film "Constellation of Riflemen" which won honours in the 17th All State Festival in Leningrad, and also the Latvia Komsomol prize.

The film which first won international recognition was "Is It Easy To Be Young?", which exploded many popular myths about Soviet Youth. Juris happened to shoot some footage of young people at a rock concert in July 1985, which achieved some notoriety because a train returning to Riga afterwards was badly vandalized. He tracked down some of the youngsters and questioned them about their lives and aspirations. Two of them were among seven tried and convicted of criminal damage on the train, and Juris managed to bluff his way into the courtroom to film the trial. The film broke box-office records in the Soviet Union and was later shown accross the world.

As the Soviet Empire crumbled, Juris Podnieks was there as a witness for the world, brave, unblinking and compassionate. Podnieksā€